Ethical flowers: Buying consciously for your Valentine

Less than 24 hours before Valentine's Day, a Toronto-based florist says that besidesfair-trade coffee, chocolate and many other items, there arealso fair-trade flowers available forpeople interested inethicalgift-giving.

JosephDelarge, who owns and operatesEco-Stemson King Street Westin Toronto, says thatlocally grown flowers are always the first choice. This stems from the concern over fair wages and chemical usage when prepping flowers.

Most of the flowers sold in Canadacome from outside Canada,from such regions as South America, California and Florida, while a few spots in B.C. and Ontario grow flowers, he said.

[It]plants a little bug in the florist'smind to thenresearchthese thingsand be a bit more informed about it.- JosephDelarge, florist

Delarge said there are typically worker concerns and water concerns in flower-producingregions outside of Canada, including the use of pesticides banned here at home.

"Women working on the flower farms are not treated properly, fired when they get pregnant, exposed to these chemicals, not allowed unionize. There's a whole host of issues," Delarge said.

Delarge recommends shopping consciously byfirst checking thelabels.Flowers that come in to florists are labeled as eitherfair trade, Canadian gown, organic or with no label at all,Delarge said.

"Often it's about going into your local florist and asking for these things, asking for fair trade or organic."

Doing so will accomplish a few things.

Florists willoften have fair trade or ethicalflowers in their store, but they don't know the story behind them. Asking about such flowers "plants a little bug in the florist'smind to thenresearchthese thingsand be a bit more informed about it," he said.

It also lets them know they can use the fair trade or organic labels as a benefit to them their business, he said, so they can offer that to theirclients who askabout it.

Delargealso noted some of the larger grocery story chains are getting better about labelling their flowers.

He was on CBC Radio'sSaskatoon Morningon Friday to talk about ethical flowers.